What do you think?
Rate this book
The golden earth: The story of Manhattan's landed wealth
Very good condition
Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1975
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 26, 2016
Perhaps it was because of Donald Trump’s boasts about his life as a real estate mogul that I wanted to know more about his predecessors at the epicenter of America’s entrepreneurship. I saw a passing reference to this book and asked my public library to see if they could obtain it on loan. In a week, this little golden volume was in my hands.
I was not/am not a resident of New York City. And, I guess that isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying a book that is almost entirely about Manhattan real estate.
I learned a lot about Manhattan and its environs from this little book, published in 1935. One of the interesting things is that in 1935 there were just about as many self-identified Native Americans in Manhattan as when Henry Hudson’s Halfmoon sailed into what is now New York Harbor. That number was about 400.
You can tell that Pound really enjoyed his research into the selling prices of various properties from the days of the original Dutch settlement. He breezes along with enough of the historical context and insights into the personalities of community leaders to make it all very interesting. I was fascinated by the reliance on wampum as currency for trading for over 100 years. And I remain puzzled as to why the Dutch neglected to protect their interests by either troops or fortifications. Perhaps, that is due to the fact that it wasn’t a political colony but, rather, a trading enterprise that was running the show.
There is plenty to learn all along the historical journey. From the time of the first Dutch efforts, there were some slaves in New Amsterdam. Yet, it took a long time for the Dutch to learn to build houses out of wood. Most of the houses were “roofed-in holes in the ground or bark dwellings.” Yet, when Peter Stuyvesant left office many of the houses already were made of brick. There are plenty of descriptions of houses and properties. One of the most detailed is of the house of John Jacob Astor III that stood on the corner of 5th Avenue and 33rd Street. It was part of the Thompson Farm property that the Astors bought in 1826 when the area was “mostly marsh and rock.” One lot in that parcel sold in 1841 for the “ludicrously high” price of $1200 and was sold again sixty years later for $400,000.
Perhaps a bit of the former island can be seen in secluded corners of its biggest park. But almost all springs and streams and certainly all the swamps are long gone. For instance, in lower Manhattan a swamp existed that was drained by creating a ditch to the river. That ditch became a waterway for boats, canoes and skiffs in 1659. The properties on the sides of this “canal” became more valuable. By 1676, the area’s needs had changed and the canal was filled in creating a wideway now known as Broad Street.
I was surprised by many aspects of this historical stroll, and I don’t feel too ashamed of my cumulative ignorance of this element of American history. Example: Many places in England and some places in the pre-revolution colonies had substantial land held “in common.” A fine example is the area in downtown Boston know as “The Commons.” Vast areas of Manhattan, according to Pound, were so designated for almost 200 years. In the 1820s, these were reduced through deeding to various private but charitable institutions and some religious organizations.
From there it was a shorter and easier change to place them into private hands for development that had little to do with the common good.
Pound charts the move north - first from 14th Street to the Madison Square area in 1868 and then to 34th Street domination by 1902. The combination of the Waldorf and Astoria hotels in 1901 helped to anchor further success such as Tiffany’s at 37th Street and B. Altman’s at 34th. Later the addition of the large Public Library help push things north as did the decision to create Grand Central Terminal further east in 1912. I learned that Bloomingdale Road became (at least) part of Broadway in the early 19th Century.
There is a full chapter devoted to how the rich moved up Fifth Avenue first to “the Fifties” and then beyond. Pound drops names (familiar even now) including Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould, Depew, and Whitney. And the shops to serve these people moved with them. In the 1920s, another boom took place for rich apartment dwellers on Park Avenue where “air rights” over New York Central tracks became available and the railroad became the landlord. “Therefore, the ‘swank’ set took naturally to Park Avenue; and the ‘swank’ shops followed them uptown.”
“Andrew Carnegie, ever a shrewd man at a bargain, bought and built on upper Fifth Avenue at Ninetieth Street before the rush really got started.” Zoning restrictions and covenants long limited development in many areas of Manhattan. “Lots farther north on Fifth Avenue beyond the Park in a region now (1935) largely occupied by Negroes sold for from $600 to $1,500 in 1858. As ‘immigrant property’ first to Germans and then for Jews, these were subject to another set of conditions than the park side property and never rose to such large figures.” Much if often implied in Pound’s narrative. He tracks the immigrant movements from Revolutionary times. And, he includes special note of Little Germany, Little Italy, Jew, Irish and Slavic enclaves. However, not much is said about the tenement living that existed on the Lower East Side and became the most densely populated blocks in the entire world.
I hope by now you get the general thrust of this book. For me, it was an eye-opening gem because it emphasized the facts and figures that underlay the progressive development of this financial and trade center. I would like to find an easy way to cross-check some of this and, I am sure, the story beyond the period of the Great Depression is just as interesting. So far, my search hasn’t produced a sequel.
I was not/am not a resident of New York City. And, I guess that isn’t a prerequisite for enjoying a book that is almost entirely about Manhattan real estate.
I learned a lot about Manhattan and its environs from this little book, published in 1935. One of the interesting things is that in 1935 there were just about as many self-identified Native Americans in Manhattan as when Henry Hudson’s Halfmoon sailed into what is now New York Harbor. That number was about 400.
You can tell that Pound really enjoyed his research into the selling prices of various properties from the days of the original Dutch settlement. He breezes along with enough of the historical context and insights into the personalities of community leaders to make it all very interesting. I was fascinated by the reliance on wampum as currency for trading for over 100 years. And I remain puzzled as to why the Dutch neglected to protect their interests by either troops or fortifications. Perhaps, that is due to the fact that it wasn’t a political colony but, rather, a trading enterprise that was running the show.
There is plenty to learn all along the historical journey. From the time of the first Dutch efforts, there were some slaves in New Amsterdam. Yet, it took a long time for the Dutch to learn to build houses out of wood. Most of the houses were “roofed-in holes in the ground or bark dwellings.” Yet, when Peter Stuyvesant left office many of the houses already were made of brick. There are plenty of descriptions of houses and properties. One of the most detailed is of the house of John Jacob Astor III that stood on the corner of 5th Avenue and 33rd Street. It was part of the Thompson Farm property that the Astors bought in 1826 when the area was “mostly marsh and rock.” One lot in that parcel sold in 1841 for the “ludicrously high” price of $1200 and was sold again sixty years later for $400,000.
Perhaps a bit of the former island can be seen in secluded corners of its biggest park. But almost all springs and streams and certainly all the swamps are long gone. For instance, in lower Manhattan a swamp existed that was drained by creating a ditch to the river. That ditch became a waterway for boats, canoes and skiffs in 1659. The properties on the sides of this “canal” became more valuable. By 1676, the area’s needs had changed and the canal was filled in creating a wideway now known as Broad Street.
I was surprised by many aspects of this historical stroll, and I don’t feel too ashamed of my cumulative ignorance of this element of American history. Example: Many places in England and some places in the pre-revolution colonies had substantial land held “in common.” A fine example is the area in downtown Boston know as “The Commons.” Vast areas of Manhattan, according to Pound, were so designated for almost 200 years. In the 1820s, these were reduced through deeding to various private but charitable institutions and some religious organizations.
From there it was a shorter and easier change to place them into private hands for development that had little to do with the common good.
Pound charts the move north - first from 14th Street to the Madison Square area in 1868 and then to 34th Street domination by 1902. The combination of the Waldorf and Astoria hotels in 1901 helped to anchor further success such as Tiffany’s at 37th Street and B. Altman’s at 34th. Later the addition of the large Public Library help push things north as did the decision to create Grand Central Terminal further east in 1912. I learned that Bloomingdale Road became (at least) part of Broadway in the early 19th Century.
There is a full chapter devoted to how the rich moved up Fifth Avenue first to “the Fifties” and then beyond. Pound drops names (familiar even now) including Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Gould, Depew, and Whitney. And the shops to serve these people moved with them. In the 1920s, another boom took place for rich apartment dwellers on Park Avenue where “air rights” over New York Central tracks became available and the railroad became the landlord. “Therefore, the ‘swank’ set took naturally to Park Avenue; and the ‘swank’ shops followed them uptown.”
“Andrew Carnegie, ever a shrewd man at a bargain, bought and built on upper Fifth Avenue at Ninetieth Street before the rush really got started.” Zoning restrictions and covenants long limited development in many areas of Manhattan. “Lots farther north on Fifth Avenue beyond the Park in a region now (1935) largely occupied by Negroes sold for from $600 to $1,500 in 1858. As ‘immigrant property’ first to Germans and then for Jews, these were subject to another set of conditions than the park side property and never rose to such large figures.” Much if often implied in Pound’s narrative. He tracks the immigrant movements from Revolutionary times. And, he includes special note of Little Germany, Little Italy, Jew, Irish and Slavic enclaves. However, not much is said about the tenement living that existed on the Lower East Side and became the most densely populated blocks in the entire world.
I hope by now you get the general thrust of this book. For me, it was an eye-opening gem because it emphasized the facts and figures that underlay the progressive development of this financial and trade center. I would like to find an easy way to cross-check some of this and, I am sure, the story beyond the period of the Great Depression is just as interesting. So far, my search hasn’t produced a sequel.
Want to Read
November 30, 2017Manhattan real estate since the 1600s.
Thomas Piketty in Capital in the Twenty-First Century shows that real estate prices are virtually entirely due to the cost of the roads, subways, water, sewer, electrical, communications, schools, police, parks, and other infrastructure and systems that serve that real estate.
Thomas Piketty in Capital in the Twenty-First Century shows that real estate prices are virtually entirely due to the cost of the roads, subways, water, sewer, electrical, communications, schools, police, parks, and other infrastructure and systems that serve that real estate.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews